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   alt.fan.cecil-adams      Fans of legendary knowitall Cecil Adams      144,831 messages   

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   Message 143,841 of 144,831   
   Richard Hershberger to Boron   
   Re: Stats fans make a difference   
   01 Sep 21 06:49:29   
   
   From: rrhersh@gmail.com   
      
   On Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 4:45:47 PM UTC-4, Boron wrote:   
   > On Tue, 31 Aug 2021 17:11:53 -0000 (UTC), Howard    
   > wrote:   
   > >Boron Elgar  wrote   
   > >   
   > >> On Tue, 31 Aug 2021 08:29:47 -0700 (PDT), Richard Hershberger   
   > >   
   > >>>It is amazing how irrelevant he became when he moved to the current   
   > >>>format. What he did well wasn't enough to sustain an independent site   
   > >>>with pressure for frequent posting, so he gracefully transitioned to   
   > >>>bullshitting. It has been years since I looked at it regularly.   
   > >>   
   > >> Exactly.   
   > >   
   > >It seems increasingly clear that his success in 2012 had more to do with   
   > >the absolutely awful competition he was up against in the world of   
   > >political reporting, not so much in his actual smarts.   
   > >   
   > >I think what's sad is how little the world of political reporting has   
   > >done to catch up to where he was in 2012. There are a few more polling   
   > >analysts, but the overall attitude in the press is still all the   
   > >analysis they need can be obtained by talking to a couple of GOP   
   > >campaign strategists.   
   > I seem to recall Silver as mostly sports stats before he dipped into   
   > politics. Once he got into the political numbers, I became a   
   > worshipper. I hung on his every word and chart. He was a breath of   
   > fresh air in the middle of all the political twaddle, and I loved   
   > looking at the data outputs   
   >   
   > It was still at the edge of the golden age of polling back then- a lot   
   > of people still had landlines, nothing had shifted heavily onto the   
   > net- it was all pleasing and understandable to me.   
   >   
   > But everything has changed over these past 14-ish years and you   
   > practically can't take a shit without a wi-fi enabled toilet paper   
   > roller asking you to give a satisfaction rating and expectations for   
   > your next wipe.   
   >   
   > Silver made huge sums of money selling pieces of himself to large   
   > corporations a couple of times, losing some of his best working   
   > consultants along the way, and now he thinks his personal opinions are   
   > what people crave and respect - not his numbers, but his ideas/deep   
   > down feelings about society, gender, human rights and maybe a bit of   
   > politics if it's Thursday and isn't raining. Trouble is, at least   
   > IMHO, his ideas are biased and stupid.   
      
   Could you expand on Silver selling pieces of himself?  I stopped paying   
   attention long ago, but I suspect this might have considerable explanatory   
   power.   
      
   Richard Hershberger   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   

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